I'm puzzled, because the bitcoin.conf file in C:\program files\bitcoin does not contain anything but comment lines.
That bitcoin.conf file is just a sample, open it and read the comments on lines 6 to 8 for its settings to apply.
So, how does the program know where to find the blockchain? After all, it's on a separate drive.
You can start bitcoin-qt with
--choosedatadir to open its "
Welcome Screen" where you can set it.
e.g.:
./bitcoin-qt --choosedatadirOr as mentioned by ranochigo,
For bitcoin-qt's datadir, it's selected in the welcome screen when Bitcoin Core (
GUI) couldn't find the previously set datadir or an existing datadir in the default paths which is
%appdata%/bitcoin (
will look here first) and
%localappdata%/bitcoin (
will create here if the default is selected) in v28.0.
Alternatively, if you set the above to the default datadir, you can paste the "
bitcoin.conf" file there and type/uncomment the
datadir=<path> line pointing to your preferred datadir.
The latter "
alternative" works in bitcoind and bitcoin-qt while the former only works in bitcoin-qt (
GUI).